We thank Mr. Jan Kavan for his work, and we welcome
Mr. Julian Hunte in the difficult year that awaits him.

At the beginning of this millennium, a summit of the
world's leaders produced a set of development goals aimed at protecting
life and promoting dignity for all peoples. This seemed an appropriate
way to begin the third millennium of our modern era.

Each year since then, however, we have been reminded
that this millennium started very differently and has forced
us to address profound challenges to our assumptions, our relationships
and our way of life.

Beginning with September 1 I and
continuing with the violence and political crises around the world,
each of our societies, nations and regions has been transformed
by the intensity of these threats to our way of life and
security.

These crises are forcing a transformation
of this organization, too. Today, reform has become essential
not just in the way we decide, act and operate, but in the way we
think. Reforms cannot be delayed if this General Assembly and this organization are to be truly relevant as facilitators
of world peace.

If the UN is for the peaceful,
prosperous and democratic development of today's world, then it must
undergo its own democratization, so that it will have the increased moral authority to direct others through
reform and democratic transition.

An organization which espouses dialogue
and negotiation as alternatives to violence and conflict, ought to
find ways through dialogue and negotiation to arrive at a consensus
on how to resolve the critical, universal issues facing us today.

This General Assembly has the chance
to go down in history as - not an undermined, inadequate but
well-meaning giant, but as a viable instrument of world peace.
The Secretary General's goals, from UN budget and financing reform
to recomposing and enlarging the Security Council - are the building
blocks of the relevant, responsive, comprehending world forum
for international cooperation that the UN can be. We applaud his decision
to empower a commission to give concrete form to the wishes of many.

Mr. President,

Each year we speak of the need for
a comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East,
never believing that next year, the region can become even
more volatile and explosive.

We believe the UN and all member states must continue
to support the renewal of the full-scale peace process. In Israel
and Palestine, Armenia hails the Quartet's efforts, recognizing that
the endangered Roadmap remains the only viable option for peace in
a long-suffering region.

The situation in Iraq makes the debate about the bows
and whys of this conflict irrelevant. The world's small countries
are accustomed to making the political compromises to join the international
flow. In Iraq, the principal powers, too,must compromise
so that a more engaged and empowered United Nations can rally a broad
range of countries from the immediate region as well as the rest
of the world to take on responsibility in bringing democracy and
stability to a critical piece of the Middle East.

Mr. President,

It is ironic and in many ways lamentable that the evil
of terrorism is what has caused us to rally together. We are fully
aware that no single government can effectively fight this
danger alone. Unfortunately, the necessity for coherent measures
and cooperation at national, regional and international levels is
often stalled, as for example in our region, where a common threat
that knows no borders is not only being addressed individually
and in isolation,but also exploited for
political reasons.

Mr. President,

In our region, there is much political exploitation.
The new Azerbaijani Prime Minister made plain from this podium yesterday
that in their election year, they are willing, at their peril, to
ignore. the realities, which are self-evident.

Nearly a decade of negotiations brought us, two years
ago, to Key West, Florida, where hosted by the US government, and
under the watchful eyes of the Minsk Group co­chairmen, the President
of Armenia and - whether the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan likes it
or not -the President of Azerbaijan did in fact reach
an understanding which reflected those realities.

There are two myths in Azerbaijan - both of them
faulty, miscalculated, risky.

Since 1992, Azerbaijan has convinced itself that if
they just hold out long enough, Armenia's economy will capitulate,
and leave Nagorno Karabagh unprotected and defenseless. Their calculations
that a blockade of Armenia would mean that our economic and social
conditions would plummet while their oil-based economy would grow
have proven misguided and misinformed.

Not only has Armenia's economy not succumbed
to political pressures; our rate of growth is greater than Azerbaijan's
- and not only Azerbaijan's.

Nevertheless, they continue to cling to a second
and related myth. Dreaming of future oil sales whose
revenues will be used to buy armaments, Azerbaijan is anticipating
the day when it will have the resources to pursue a military solution,
main. This is self-deception, too. Azerbaijan has forgotten
that similar fantasies led them to respond militarily to the peaceful
demands of Nagorno Karabagh's population for self-determination in
1992. The military balance was hugely in their favor then, in proportions
far greater than what they might hope for in the future.

Still, the moral, historical, legal, psychological balance
favored the people of Nagorno Karabagh who were fighting for their
homes, their families, their security, their lives, their futures.

The armaments of Azerbaijan did not then, and
cannot ever -break the will of the people of Nagorno Karabagh
to live freely on their own land.

Indeed, Azerbaijanis are victims, but of their
own aggression. They started the war, one-sidedly began
massacring Armenians, citizens of Azerbaijan's cities: Sumgait, Baku,
Ganja - the most irresponsible reaction that a government can
have, using the most inhuman methods associated with pogroms.
The war that followed changed the world for two generations of Armenians
who have never lived under Azerbaijani rule. Azerbaijan's leadership
- old and new - rather than remaining prisoners of a Soviet era,one which they themselves rejected as historically illegitimate,
can look to a future of compromise, peace, regional cooperation
and prosperous, stable development.

Armenia intends to go forward.Indeed,
we already have.

Mr. President,

2003 has been a very good year for Armenia.

On the economic front, our steady, double-digit
growth rate is the fastest in the CIS and Europe. This had
lead some to calling Armenia the Caucasian Tiger. We are pleased with
the name, and the challenge. We know that with economic
growth comes an even greater responsibility: to confront the social
gaps, which can lead to social inequality and domestic instability.
The shortest path to the eradication of such transitional ills as
polarization of society, the urban-rural gap, uneven access to higher
education, is to sustain this high level of economic growth.

That's why,with the help of the UNDP, we
embarked on the Sustainable Economic Development Program. That's
why, the Government has approved and launched a Poverty
Reduction Strategy. That's why achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals of poverty eradication, awareness and prevention
of HIV/AIDS, empowering women is an important part of Armenia's development
strategy.

In Armenia, the UN plays a key role
in promoting synergies directed at expanding the development impact
of ICTs. As we prepare for the World Summit on the Information Society
in December in Geneva, Armenia is living a hopeful paradox. On the
one hand, less than half of our 1000-plus schools are connected to
the Internet; on the other hand, ICTs comprise a significant proportion
of Armenia's exports today. Still, too many in our country, just as
the majority of the world population, still remain untouched by the
ICT revolution and its potential.

We recognize, of course, that ICTs
can be central in economies like ours, especially given the continuing
blockade. Our economic growth has been despite the blockade,
which goes against the spirit and the conclusion of the recent
UN-sponsored International Ministerial Conference on Transit Transport
Cooperation which reaffirmed the right of access of landlocked countries
to and from the sea, and, freedom of transit through the territory
of their neighbors by all means of, transport, in accordance with
applicable rules of international law. For us, this means a condemnation
of the practice of unilateral coercive economic measures intended
as political pressure.

This was also a good year for
our legislative reform process. The Armenian parliament has ratified
the 6th Protocol of the European Convention for the Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms thus
unconditionally abolishing the death penalty. We also adopted the
Draft Law on the Ombudsman thus empowering our citizens, investing
them with the faith necessary to govern with justice and be
governed with dignity.

On another matter, important for us and for
all humanity,Armenia continues to engage countries and
governments around the world to recognize and condemn the first Genocide
of the 20th century. The survivors of the Genocide and
their descendants are helping build a democratic Armenia, committed
to a future, without forgetting the past.

Mr. President,

When Sergio Vieira de Mello was
in Armenia several years ago, he came looking for ways to minimize
the pain and suffering of Armenian refugees forced to flee their homes
in Azerbaijan's Baku and Sumgait. This year, as he worked to minimize
the pain and suffering of the people of Iraq, to help them in rebuilding
their country and their government, he and too many of
his colleagues lost their lives.

His death, and that of Anna Lindh of Sweden, remind us that it is ideas,
more than people, which are scary and threatening. These two brutal
murders also suggest to us louder than any demonstrations,that the leadership of the world has much to do still, in engaging
the rejectionists, the extremists and the cynical.